Congratulations to Dr Jerry C Respeto - Gawad Paz Marquez Benitez awardee

Ateneo de Manila University's School of Humanities is happy to inform the community that Dr Jerry C Respeto will receive the Gawad Paz Marquez Benitez, a lifetime achievement award for teachers of Philippine Literature, from the Unyon ng mga Manunulat ng Pilipinas (UMPIL) during the 50th National Writers’ Congress on 27 April 2024.

Dr Respeto is an Associate Professor of the Kagawaran ng Filipino. He began teaching at Ateneo de Manila as a part-time lecturer in 1994 and became a full-time instructor in 1996. He teaches Philippine Literature and Purposive Communication in Filipino at the college. In his teaching and scholarly work, he highlights the importance of Philippine languages and folk performances in the understanding of our past and of ourselves. He specializes in Filipino drama and shares his mastery of what he calls “bayang panitikan” in the teaching and study of our national literature.

In 2010, he was given the Outstanding Junior Teacher Award by the Ateneo Schools Parents Council (ASPAC). In 2013, he was given the Fine Arts Professorial Chair in recognition of his work in teaching play translations and adaptations. In 2019, he received the Rev Henry Lee Irwin Memorial Teacher Award.

Dr Respeto is frequently invited by national cultural institutions, such as the NCCA, and state universities all over the country to deliver lectures on literature. His students remember him as a profound, passionate, and very engaging professor who “made sure to remind us of our social realities” in lectures that are “incredibly insightful.”

The School extends its congratulations to Dr Jerry Respeto.